Armoria
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It all started with

squirrel fur

by Mike Oettle

vair - arms of Zu Pappenheim

ONE of the most complex classes of colourings in heraldry is vair. It is found in a variety of colours, and appears in different arrangements, each with its own name.

But it goes back, as does ermine, to a fur highly prized by the potentates of the Middle Ages: vair is a composite fur made up of pieces of squirrel skin.

The word vair reflects this diversity: it is derived, in Modern English, from the Middle English forms veir and vairé, meaning variegated fur, which in turn come from the French vair, which derives from the Latin varius, meaning variegated.[1]

The squirrel in question (not named by species in books on heraldry) was apparently bluey-grey on the back and white underneath, and was much used for the lining of cloaks.

It was sewn together in alternating cup-shaped pieces of back and stomach fur, resulting in a pattern of grey-blue and grey-white – which, when simplified in heraldic drawing and painting, became blue and white in alternating pieces.

One mystery is the kind of squirrel involved: while the Encyclopædia Britannica states that there are many genera and species of squirrel, it names the red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) as being the historically predominant tree squirrel species in Britain, Europe and Asia, and the grey squirrel (S carolinensis) as having been introduced from North America (it was likewise introduced to South Africa).

Clearly there must have been a common grey squirrel in Europe before this New World intruder was brought in.

The fur was, as mentioned, sought after, and Geoffrey of Anjou[2] is shown in effigy on his tomb wearing a cloak lined with vair. Bishop Odo of Bayeux, half-brother to King William I,[3] is also known to have worn vair.

Fox-Davies[4] quotes an interesting detail from Parker’s Glossary of the Terms Used in Heraldry:

“The familiar fairy tale of Cinderella was brought to us from the French, and the slippers made of this costly fur, written, probably, verre for vairé, were erroneously translated ‘glass’ slippers. This was, of course, an impossible material, but the error has always been repeated in the nursery-tale books.”

In describing the presentation of the fur in heraldic art, Fox-Davies writes:

“In the oldest records vair is represented by means of straight horizontal lines alternating with horizontal wavy or nebuly lines, but the cup-shaped divisions therefrom resulting having passed through various intermediate forms, have now been stereotyped into a fixed geometrical pattern, formed of rows of ear-shaped shields of alternate colours and alternately reversed, so depicted that each reversed shield fits into the space left by those on either side which are not reversed.”

Fox-Davies then writes a further two pages before coming to an illustration that clarifies the picture immensely: on the left two typical vair “shields”, and on the right a 14th- and 15th-century iron hat matching the rounded form, and a squirrel pelt matching the vair outline drawn with straight lines.
conventional vair shapes (left), an iron hat and a piece of vair fur

The iron hat illustrates the German name for ordinary vair, Eisenhut-feh (iron hat fur). This in turn gave the German nickname for the fur, Eisenhütlein (“little iron hat”), which has at times been misunderstood and given rise to a variety of fanciful derivations for this type of fur.

seal of Conrad Pellifex

He also illustrates the seal of a 14th-century burgomaster of Vienna, Chimrad Pellifex (Conrad the Furrier), where the dexter half of the shield is clearly drawn as vair in the style described above.[5] The name Pellifex appears to be a translation into Latin of Wildwerker, meaning a worker in skins, or furrier, so the vair field is clearly a canting (or punning) reference.

As early as the 13th century, vair appeared in colours other than blue and white – and in such colours it was then called vairé or vairy.

Fox-Davies illustrates a sequence of examples from the Ferrers family, Earls of Derby, who appear to have adopted arms of vairé of or and gules as a pun on their surname.
William de Ferrers (died 1247)

The first was William de Ferrers (†1247), Earl of Derby, who bore a shield showing four rows of such pieces, drawn with nebuly lines.
stained glass image of arms of Robert de Ferrers (died 1265)

Robert de Ferrers (Earl of Derby 1254-1265), whose arms appear in stained glass in the church at Dorchester showing three rows where the nebuly lines end in points (possibly to enable to the window-maker to cut separate pieces of glass). Certainly on his seal, Robert’s shield showed the nebuly line pattern, and in no fewer than seven rows.
arms (from seal) of Robert de Ferrers (died 1265) William de Ferrers (died 1254)

In between these two was William de Ferrers (†1254), Earl of Derby, who added a silver border charged with eight black horseshoes, and displayed his vair in four rows of nebuly lines. It was for a time thought that the horseshoes were also a pun on Ferrers (“farrier”), but it turns out that they were the badge of his father-in-law, William Marshall,[6] Earl of Pembroke.

This wavy style of depicting vair is blazoned in French as vair ondé or vair ancien. The German equivalent is Wolkenfeh.
vair and counter-vair

Whether one draws vair with wavy lines or angled sections, there are at least four ways of arranging the blue and white segments. Aside from the ordinary form, there are:

Counter-vair, in which the blue segments are aligned vertically to alternate with white segments.

Vair en point, in which the blue segments are aligned back-to-back in alternating rows, resulting in the staggered pattern seen at far left. Vair en point is rendered in German as Wogenfeh.
vair en point, potent and counter-potent further variations on vair

And in vair in pale, called Pfahlfeh in German and vair appointé or vair en pal in French, the segments of the same colour are aligned in vertical or palar rows.

German heraldry distinguishes between Pfahlfeh and Sturzpfahlfeh, or reversed vair in pale.

And on the European Continent, one occasionally encounters vair in bend (or in bend sinister). Fox-Davies cites (in French blazon) the Mignianelli family in Italy, the head of which bears vairé d’or et d’azur en bande (vairy in bend, or and azure), and Pichon, of Geneva: vairé en barre d’or et de sable (en barre meaning in bend sinister).

The naming of the colours in vairé follows the heraldic pattern of naming a metal first, then a tincture: ordinary vair is argent and azure, and the commonest form of vairé is or and gules.

However, there is a distinction between French and British usage: in French heraldry, the white panes form the top line; but in British heraldry, the blue panes generally appear at the top.

Both Fox-Davies and Boutell[7] mention an instance where vairé and ermine are combined: the arms of Gresley being vairy ermine and gules. And Fox-Davies, again quoting Parker, cites an instance of vairy argent, azure, gules and or, en point.

Vair (as indicated in the arms of Ferrers) also displays variations of size. Fox-Davies writes:

“The Vair of commerce was formerly of three sizes, and the distinction is continued in foreign armory. The middle or ordinary size is known as Vair; a smaller size as Menu-vair (whence our word ‘miniver’); the largest as Beffroi or Gros vair, a term which is used in armory when there are less than four rows. The word Beffroi is evidently derived from the bell-like shape of the vair, the word Beffroi being anciently used in the sense of the alarm-bell of a town. In French armory Beffroi should consist of three horizontal rows; Vair, of four; Menu-vair, of six.

“This rule is not strictly observed, but in French blazon if the rows are more than four it is usual to specify the number; thus VARROUX bears: de Vair de cinq traits. Menu-vair is still the blazon of some families; BANVILLE DE TRUTEMNE bears: de Menu-vair de six tires; the Barons van HOUTHEM bore: de Menu-vair, au franc quartier de gueules chargé de trois maillets d’or.

“In British armory the foregoing distinctions are unknown, and Vair is only of one size, that being at the discretion of the artist.”

Fox-Davies mentions (aside from Ferrers and Gresley) a number of families which bear vair or vairy only: Varano, Dukes de Camerino; Vairière, in France; Veret, in Switzerland; Gouvis, Fresnay (Brittany); De Vera in Spain; Loheac (Brittany); Varenchon (Savoy); Soldanieri (Florence). He writes further:

“Counter vair is borne by LOFFREDO of Naples; by BOUCHAGE, DU PLESSIS ANGERS, and BROTIN, of France. HELLEMMES of Tournay uses: de Contre vair, à lac otice de gueules brochante sur le tout.”

Fox-Davies also mentions the oddity of plumeté, which is discussed here.

Further variation is provided by a form in which the segments are T-shaped. This is called potent, because the T-shapes resemble a mediæval style of crutch (called a potence or potent in mediæval English). This form also appears in two varieties: besides potent there is also counter-potent, in which the same-colour segments form vertical rows.

In German these are called Sturzkrückenfeh and Gegensturzkrückenfeh, and German heraldry provides a further type, called verschobenes Gegensturzkrückenfeh, which is a variation in potent form that resembles vair en point.

Fox-Davies states that potent was originally an alternative way of illustrating vair, and cites a number of early examples of this. Like vair, it is normally white and blue, but can be in other colours if so specified, in which case it is called potenty.

All this takes us a long way away from squirrel fur . . . but it serves to underline the fact that heraldry is able to make pleasing and distinctive patterns that convey meaning.



[1] Etymology from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (American Heritage/Houghton Mifflin).

Fox-Davies derives the word from a Latin original varus, but while Lewis and Short’s Latin Dictionary (Oxford, 1894) lists two distinct words with that spelling, neither has any bearing on fur.

[2] Geoffrey Plantagenet (*1113 †1151), Count of Anjou, second husband of Matilda (*1103 †1167), daughter of King Henry I of England. Matilda was first married to the Emperor Henry V, and was wed to Geoffrey in 1127, following Henry’s death in 1125. She was proclaimed Queen of England in 1141, in opposition to King Stephen (*1096 †1154, also Count of Blois).

Even before the death of Stephen, Matilda and Geoffrey’s son Henry was proclaimed King of England in 1152 (Henry II), so establishing the House of Plantagenet on the English throne.

[3] William of Normandy, popularly known as William the Conqueror, but see the bottom of this page for a discussion of this point.

[4] A C Fox-Davies: A Complete Guide to Heraldry, revised and annotated by J P Brooke-Little, Richmond Herald of Arms (Nelson).

[5] The hatching on this seal would seem to indicate that the vair in this shield is iron-grey (Eisengrau) and white, but since the hatchings formerly in common use in (black-and-white) heraldic drawing were devised no earlier than the 17th century, this can be discounted in a 14th-century seal. See this page for a discussion.

[6] The feudal office of marshal, from which this earl of Pembroke derived his family name, became a very high office of state, but originally it meant a person in charge of the stables, hence the horseshoes.

[7] Boutell’s Heraldry, revised by J P Brooke-Little, Richmond Herald of Arms (Frederick Warne & Co).


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  • Acknowledgments: Arms of Zu Pappenheim from Simple Heraldry by Moncrieffe and Pottinger (Nelson). Drawings of iron hat and squirrel fur, of Pellifex seal, of Ferrers coats of arms and diagram of various vairy furs from Fox-Davies. Five drawings of variations on vair from Boutell’s. Colours adjusted using MS Picture It!.


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    Comments, queries: Mike Oettle

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